


Growing Pains

by Btw Where The Hell Are We (GrumpDerpShipping)



Category: Voltron: Legendary Defender
Genre: Angst, Blood, Galra Keith (Voltron), M/M, Mutation, Sickfic, Teeth, Transformation
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-12
Updated: 2019-08-12
Packaged: 2020-08-20 02:20:23
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 6,219
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20220178
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GrumpDerpShipping/pseuds/Btw%20Where%20The%20Hell%20Are%20We
Summary: Keith starts feeling ill during class. He hopes to curl up in bed and let it all blow over, but his rotten luck has other plans





	Growing Pains

_matt 13:25  
_Hey, still up for a movie night beautiful?

_you 13:27  
_Can’t tonight hw due in the morning

_matt 13:28  
_Booo! Just let me do it

_you 13:30  
_I’ll have time tomorrow night you big baby.

_matt 13:33  
_Fine, but you better stop texting in class, mister honest academic

_matt 13:33  
_:O You called me ‘baby’!

_you 13:34  
_Adams not going to call me out in the middle of class

_you 13:35  
_Shut up!

Keith sighed as he stuffed his phone back into his pocket, ignoring any smug replies from his boyfriend of 5 months. Adam was giving him a half-hearted glare from his desk but said nothing as he continued the lecture. Since the two of them saw each other outside of the classroom fairly often he wasn’t going to waste his class time calling him out for texting when he could spend much more time reprimanding him later.

The motion of lifting his head back up to face the board made Keith a bit dizzy, causing him to space out for a few seconds before he went back to scribbling his notes. His writing was so simplistic and messy that it was a wonder how he was in the higher percentile of cadet grades. His hand faltered as he marked up the paper, Keith settling for just lazily crossing out his typo even though his pencil had a perfectly unused eraser. By the time he looked back up, Adam was on the next page of notes. Keith pulled himself out of his flustered surprise and left space to finish the previous page later, rushing to catch up with the lecture. He managed to stumble through the last two pages, resenting the fact that he’d need more time to study the textbook than usual.

Keith let out a weary groan as Adam passed out the corresponding worksheets. He nearly dropped the stack of papers between the desks as he passed them back, the student behind him just barely being able to recover them before they dropped and scattered across the floor. As Keith stared at the paper, the words grew jumbled on the page, he could’ve sworn they were actually falling off as his attention failed to get him through the first sentence of instructions.

“Keith?” Keith jerked his head up, only making himself more dizzy. He tried to greet Adam, but it all tumbled out as a weak groan. Adam leaned over his desk, confused that Keith hadn’t even started the problems. He was usually one of the first to finish. “Need any help?” Keith blinked at him, his mind drawing a blank when he tried to find a response. Adam frowned and shifted a little as a subtle way to check Keith actually had the mental capacity to focus on something at the moment. His eyes followed him but that only drew Adam to the sickly pale extremities of his face, a pink tint gradually blooming on his cheeks. Adam dropped his voice more as he spoke to him again, “Are you feeling okay, Keith? You look flushed…”

“I…” Keith caught himself with his arm as he nearly fell forward onto the desk. “I don’t feel good…”

“Do you want to go to the nurse?” Keith sighed and reluctantly nodded, sloppily throwing his things into his bag before gradually rising to his feet, using his desk for balance. Once Keith seemed like he could walk on his own Adam stopped hovering and simply opened the door for him. “I’ll have you excused from your other classes. Feel better…” Keith didn’t respond as he shuffled his way into the hall.

He could see a sparse few others walking and chatting in the hall, but he couldn’t make out a word of it. His ears felt clogged as he hugged the wall towards the nurse. He attempted to pop his ear with his finger, resulting in a painful recoil that made him wince. His muffled hearing remained unchanged, so he didn’t even attempt with his other ear.

As he passed the hall leading to the cadet dorms, a spike of pain twisted in his gut, causing him to stop and nearly collapse on his shaking legs. The nurse was still so far away, but his room was so close. He could just curl up and let all of this blow over. What could the nurse do anyway? Give him an official document saying his sick? He already knows he’s sick he doesn’t need it in writing. Keith huffed and promptly turned around to crawl to his room.

He’d lucked out on having a single room. He wouldn’t be subjecting a roommate to this and was allowed to do as he pleased. He could stay in bed all day. His soft, dark, quiet bed. He let his desire for peace and quiet push him to stumble faster to his dorm. He swiped his ID card and practically fell inside, squirming into his bed with a groan as the door automatically shut behind him. He clutched his blanket, keeping his feet awkwardly stuck out from under his blanket in an attempt not to be overheated in the soft bedding. He let himself sink into it and closed his eyes to try and sleep away his misery.

Keith awoke hours later, his head filled with the dull pounding of a migraine. He was twisted up in his sheets and his body was uncomfortably damp with a layer of sweat. He shifted, only to feel a sharp sting in his lower back. His groan was almost muted in his own ears. He only knew he made a noise at all because of the vibration in his throat.

Despite the soreness in his body, he turned over to face his room and grabbed his phone off the nightstand. It had been 5 hours now, according to the clock. Great, now he missed dinner, stupid fever. He scrolled through his messages only to see an unusual amount of texts from Shiro. He opened the conversation to read them.

_Shiro 17:05_  
Hey, are you coming to dinner? Matt says he hasn’t seen you

_Shiro 17:13_  
Okay, Adam says you’re sick. Did you go to the nurse??

_Shiro 17:15  
_Is it bad?

_Shiro 17:15_  
Like vomit bad??

_Shiro 17:16_  
Keith are you there??

_Shiro 17:18  
_Keith, it’s Adam. I’m taking his phone so you can rest. Message one of us when you can.

_Shiro 17:56  
_I just stopped by your room and you were out cold. Left you some stuff on your desk. I know it’s lukewarm and sad looking but eat up. I also left you a cold pill. I assume if the nurse gave you anything it’s wearing off by now. Text one of us if you need anything else. 😊 Feel better, Keith.

Sure enough, there was a small tray was resting on his desk that he didn’t remember being there before. Cursing Shiro for putting it so far away, he rolled to the edge of his bed, sitting up with a weak whine from the pain. He pulled himself up and stumbled through the dimly lit room to his desk. It was one of the standard food trays, a full water bottle and a pill packet resting beside it.

Just like he warned, the meal didn’t exactly look appetizing. The sandwich was sagging, it’s contents nearly falling off. The sealed container of soup was cold, and the macaroni side had hardened into an unnaturally stiff paste. Keith grimaced but he appreciated the thought, as well as the two cookies Shiro managed to snag for him. He sighed before hesitantly eating the food.

He picked up the entirety of the cheesy mass with one stab of his fork and choked it down, the slimy feeling of the cheese oozing into his stomach made him shudder in disgust. He tore through the sandwich in as big of bites as he could take without choking and chugged the soup just as quickly. Just as he was shoving the creamy broth back, a carrot piece fell out at a bad angle. Keith coughed harshly and dropped the plastic bowl, the remaining few drops of soup spilling onto the floor.

His throat eventually crushed the mushy carrot and his managed to swallow. He gasped for air, keeled over with one hand still gripping the edge of his desk. He throat burned from the harsh treatment and his ears rang from the loud noise. He let go of the desk and settled on the floor with a whimper, content to stay there until his body stopped punishing him.

His stomach settled after a few minutes and his throat stopped burning; he could only be grateful that he was keeping things down. He pulled himself back up to his feet, the ache in his lower back spiking but otherwise he felt a little better. He took a long swig of the bottle and held the water in his mouth before pushing the pill past his lips and swallowing it all at once.

He shuffled back to bed, keeping the drink and his dessert nearby, he wasn’t going to pass up the opportunity to savor his sweets. He bit into the first one while keeping the other on his nightstand. It was a little tough and brittle from being out in the air so long but not terribly so. He bit into a particularly hard chocolate chip and winced a little, that hurt a lot more than it should have. He let out a confused whine at the pain in his teeth and sadly set the cookie aside. He took another quick drink and settled back into bed, still feeling tired despite his afternoon nap.

Keith woke up to a sharp pain in his throat, for all he knew, he’d just been stabbed. He shifted to roll over when he realized there actually was something in his throat. And it was now jammed in his airway.

In a panic, Keith tumbled out of bed, coughing violently as his nails dug into the carpet. His backside burned with even more pain and his ringing ears only increased his pounding headache, he barely managed to keep himself upright as he choked. He punched himself hard in the chest and managed to jostle the mystery item free, hacking it up onto the floor as his vision blurred with tears.

He crumbled on the floor as he gently held his burning throat before examining what he coughed out. It was small, and white, but slightly dirtied. It was still wet with his saliva and something else giving the surrounding bubble of fluid a slight orange tint. He pondered the color before the answer literally fell and hit him. A small drop of red hit his hand as he examined the object. Blood, on a tiny piece of bone. He nearly choked to death on his own tooth.

Keith’s chest contracted with panic again as he stood up and scrambled into his tiny adjacent bathroom. He threw the light on and practically hissed at the bright light, even squinting, his eyes were irritated by it. Eventually he managed to force them open and approached the mirror, a bit uncoordinated on his feet. He held up his upper lip and opened his mouth. His gums were red, drops of blood were gathering in the gaps between his teeth and dripping into the sink below him. He hesitantly pushed on one of his canines and it fell out and into the sink effortlessly, creating another gap among the three already present. Keith could do nothing but let out a small cry of anguish as he leaned over to spit out another puddle of blood that was pooling in his mouth, the metallic taste becoming unbearable. He turned on the sink to wash the red fluid down and fished the other tooth out to set on the counter. It was then Keith realized, he couldn’t hear the faucet running.

He couldn’t hear anything. He tried to pop his ears again but recoiled when just the slightest touch inside his ear made it flare up in pain. He tried to make noise, speaking, flushing the toilet, but nothing came. Out of desperation he smacked his hand on the counter as hard as he could. He couldn’t even hear his own cries of pain as he held his stinging hand close to his chest. He sat there for an amount of time he couldn’t accurately estimate. He sobbed until he ran low on tears, a puddle of blood and teeth staining his tile floor.

Keith stood up and looked himself over again, his mouth and shirt were stained with red, most of his teeth were now gone, aside from some of his molars. He let out a hitched sniffle and reluctantly wriggled the last few free. He gathered them all together, 14 from the counter, 16 from the floor, and 2 from his bed and set them inside the tiny soup cup after washing it out.

He stood there, staring down at his full set of adult teeth as he continued to force himself to swallow the blood pooling in his mouth. He gagged and sniffled as he wished all of this was a bad dream. Finally, he shut off the sink and left the bathroom. He dried his running nose and curled back up in bed, a towel beside his mouth to dab away the blood. He’d have to wait a few more hours before trying to shuffle to the nurse. It was still technically lights out.

Keith woke up again a few hours later and unfurled himself from his blanket cocoon. He reached over and knocked on the wall behind him, no sound. Dammit. He ran his tongue over the roof of his mouth, his gums still bleeding and stripped clean. He groaned as he pulled his head up, he felt woozy and his ever-present headache was getting more difficult to ignore. He groaned and opened his phone again, still having to turn his irritated eyes away from the bright screen before they acclimated enough to read his messages.

_Shiro 06:45  
_Checked on you again and you were still sleeping. Glad you ate though, hope it wasn’t too gross. Adam decided to be a big softie and cook you breakfast. It’s in the container on your desk. More cold pills too.

_Shiro 06:50  
_Text Adam if you’re still not feeling okay but don’t use this as an excuse for time off. Those late assignments are going to pile up fast.

Keith sighed, if only Shiro knew. Not having the energy to reply to everything with effort, he sent a thumbs up and switched to Adam.

_you 08:12_  
Hey, sorry but I’m still not good. Thanks for breakfast though.

He assumed Adam was already teaching and not looking at his phone and moved onto his unread messages from Matt.

_matt 07:35_  
Keith, hey sorry I heard you were sick but didn’t have time to check on you. Dad said I should probably let you rest anyway.

_matt 07:37_  
Just letting you know that movie night is postponed until you feel better. Can’t have a good time unless you’re 100%

_matt 07:39_  
I’ll try to make time to come see you today. I miss not having you around. ☹

_matt 07:40_  
Love you, get better <3

Despite his pain, Keith let a soft smile form on his face. He rolled slightly to sit up straight only to yelp in pain. It felt like he bent his leg in a way that it should not be bent. He stood up and looked himself over, his legs were fine. The pain was still in his…tailbone…oh god.

Keith reached behind himself, intending to try and rub away the pain when he felt a small lump on his lower back. He stepped into the bathroom again and tugged his pajama bottoms down, twisting himself around to look at the mirror. The lump extended about two inches from his body, an unnatural lilac color painting the tip of it. When Keith felt the lump again, he could feel bone, like a spine inside. He would’ve been more horrified if he didn’t just lose all of his teeth.

He decided to strip off his clothes and make sure there was nothing else he needed to be aware of. Also, they smelled absolutely horrid from the sweat and dried blood. He chucked them in his hamper and looked himself over in the mirror. Apparently, the purple wasn’t exclusive to the world’s weirdest tumor. He had rashes in a few places across his body. Nothing felt irritated enough to scratch but his neck, feet, knees, shoulders, fingers, ears and cheeks were splotched with purple like he had just lost a game of paintball. He brushed his hand along his cheek, a small tingle followed his touch but that was it. He inspected his arm a little closer and could see smaller dots staining what he first thought was untouched skin. No wonder he didn’t notice this before, this weird rash was spreading more by the minute. Keith could only pray that what was probably a weird skin rotting disease, given his luck lately, wasn’t contagious as he left the bathroom to eat his breakfast.

Although the food was still old and lukewarm, it looked much better than cafeteria food left to the open air. The toast was soft from the butter soaking into every pore. The scrambled eggs were still plenty fluffy, and the bacon strips were still glistening with grease. The pain in his stomach reminded him that he could stop gawking and start eating and he quickly snatched a piece of toast.

He bit into it with the teeth he no longer had realized he had no way to break off a bite to eat. He took the toast out of his mouth and broke off a corner, throwing it into his mouth while quietly mourning the fact that he couldn’t indulge in the buttery flavor as much as would like. He promptly coughed and the tiny piece flew out of his mouth and onto the desk. Right, he didn’t have a way to chew either…

He glared at the piece of saliva drenched bread before examining the remaining options on his plate, his stomach reminding him again that he needed to eat something. He poked at the eggs with the fork he was given, they seemed soft enough at least. He cut the lump of scrambled egg into a few small chunks and let it slide down his throat. His impulses made him make chewing motions with his jaw, but it did nothing as he swallowed the egg. He sealed up the remaining food, Adam would probably feel hurt that he didn’t eat much but there was hardly anything he could do if he didn’t want to nearly choke to death for the fourth time in 24 hours. He drank the bottle of juice he found behind the container and swallowed another pill, trying to make his stomach ignore the food still present in the room.

He returned to the bathroom to pee and opened his mouth to check the state of his gums. He was still bleeding but not so much that he had to keep spitting and wiping his mouth. He just swallowed it down with his saliva without noticing. He could see small dots of white on the roof of his mouth. He gently prodded one and for once doing so didn’t cause him to keel over in agony.

He quickly learned that they were solid and actually still inside his gums, and very sharp judging by the fact that his continued prodding lightly punctured his fingertip. New teeth? He held out hope that they were but how was that even possible? Technically none of his carousel of suffering should be possible but he was simply tried to indulge in the idea that he might not have to swallow down mushed up egg for the rest of his life anymore

But even with that thought a bit of anxiety swirled in his gut. This was too weird to be an illness contracted before in recorded history. He wasn’t sick, he was mutating! As if everyone around him didn’t have enough ammunition to single him out. He made his decision; he wasn’t going to the nurse. He’d ride this out until he was either back to normal or dead because a life where people knew he looked like this wasn’t one worth living.

He settled back down in bed after putting on some fresh clothes, laying on his side so as not to crush his weird, probably cancerous, tumor. He felt a chill go up his body and buried himself further in his blankets as he scrolled through his phone for a book to read to pass the time. He only managed to get 5 pages into a mystery novel before his eyes couldn’t take the light and he had to shut it off. He rubbed at his eyes as they watered a bit try and flush out the irritation and he sighed as he remained confined to his dark, silent room with nothing but the monotone ring in his ears to keep him company.

Keith looked up when he felt his phone vibrate against the sheets. He hadn’t fallen asleep again, but he’d been laying there for some time. He picked up the phone and read his message.

_matt 16:01  
_I’m freee! Hope you’re allowing visitors because I’m about to grab a filtration mask and snuggle the shit out of you.

Keith smiled softly but pondered over how to respond to him. He wanted to say yes, seeing Matt and having company through his suffering would actually help him through this but the fear of someone seeing him now, half purple and missing his teeth, constricted his body with only the worst-case scenarios. Would Matt drag him out to the medical wing? Break up with him on the spot? Would this somehow get even worse?

Unfortunately, he didn’t have enough time to craft a way to gently blow Matt off because he caught the door to his room beginning to slide open out of the corner of his eye. He grabbed his blankets and flung them over his body, covering as much of himself as possible to try and pretend he was sleeping. After a moment, he felt a hand on the top of his head, the only thing he hadn’t been able to cover up in time.

Matt’s fingers played with his tangle mop before he felt the bed sink beside him and one of Matt’s arms slip under his torso to pull him closer. Keith could only pray the blankets hid his ass tumor. He jumped slightly as Matt nuzzled the back of his neck; shit, Matt knew that spot was sensitive! He ended up squirming and trying to suppress a giggle, which gave away that he was fully conscious.

At this reveal, Matt reached over to try and pull the blankets away from his face. Keith whined in response and yanked the blankets back over his face. It was getting more uncomfortable by the second, staying in the warm, stale air under the fabric but Matt couldn’t see him, not like this. He kept the blanket’s edge in a tight grip as Matt continued to prod at him to see his face, probably ranting about how badly he wanted to kiss it, the poor unknowing sap. Keith buried his face into the bed, cringing at the fact that he was now pressed down directly into the disgusting brown stain from the blood he hacked up in his sleep the other night.

He felt Matt straddle him with a leg on either side, opening his eye to see Matt trying to push his way into the blanket to see him. His lips were moving but Keith still couldn’t hear a thing. He tried to force out a “no”, but he couldn’t say for sure whether or not any sound actually came out. Matt seemed to give a look of shock, staring directly into his eyes as he tried, more stubbornly to get the blanket off his head. Keith fought him, sitting up slightly when the blanket started moving away from his face.

The small tug of war quickly turned into a serious tousle. Neither of them cared if the blanket ripped just as long as they got what they wanted. With a harsh tug, Matt’s elbow hit the side of Keith’s sensitive ear, causing it to flare with unbearable pain. Keith lost his grip as he cried out, falling back onto the mattress as he covered his ear with his hand, hoping the pressure would dull the pain. The pounding in his head only grew harder and faster until it felt like his entire head was visibly throbbing. The dull ring in his ears seemed to get increasingly louder until it was completely unbearable.

All he could do was cry as he felt Matt move off the bed, squeezing his eyes shut tighter as he turned on the lights. Matt hesitantly tried to find a place to put his hand to soothe him after pacing around debating whether or not he needed adult help. Well, a real adult not some 19-year-old punk.

Keith continued to clutch his head, panting heavily until a sharp pop came to his ear. “-eith? Keith, you need to say something!” Keith winced and whimpered, the sound of moving air in the room was too loud, much less Matt’s panicked screaming. Wait...! “M-Matt??” Keith muttered softly through heavy, whimpering breaths. He could hear his voice. He could hear his own voice. He could hear again! In one ear, at least.

“Keith, are you okay?? You just started screaming after not saying anything to me…” Matt sounded hurt, but whether it was from Keith’s behavior or the fact that he hurt him, was unclear. Keith slowly opened his eyes, it still hurt with this much light, but he let himself adjust as he sat up.

“I…I’m not okay, Matt” his T’s weren’t coming out of his mouth correctly because of his lack of teeth. He reluctantly shuffled around to face his boyfriend, the splotches even bigger than before, his body trembled with weakness and pain, and his slightly agape mouth showed off his lack of teeth as he tried to catch his breath. Matt stared in utter horror, avoiding his ears as he set a hand on his cheek and examined him closer.

“What? But, how-? Where-? Keith what happened?!” He looked like he was on the verge of tears, seeing his boyfriend in such an awful state and knowing he had been going through this for two days. Keith failed to find a good place to start explaining as Matt rubbed his thumb across his cheek. “Does it hurt...?” Matt seemed to hesitate asking the question.

“Not the skin thing, but my ears…I haven’t been able to hear…” Keith made a few odd gestures to try and make up for the lack of clarity in his voice.

“How are they so long now?” Matt asked. Keith made a confused noise and Matt simply guided him to his feet and into the bathroom. Keith stared in shock at his face. Most of it was a soft lilac color by now, the sclera of his eyes had turned a soft yellow, and his ears had stretched up to nearly twice the length as before, he could even swivel them quite a bit.

“Ah!” Keith winced as his other ear finally popped, thankfully the recoil wasn’t was severe this time. Matt looked to him with a worried expression, but Keith made a lazy wave gesture to show he was fine.

“And what happened to your teeth??” Matt whined as he pulled Keith’s mouth open to look at the raw gums. The new teeth were poking out a bit more now but still not enough to let Keith speak coherently.

Keith looked to the soup cup still on his nightstand and filled with his old bloody teeth. “They just…fell out…” he murmured.

Matt sighed and pulled Keith into a hug. “God, baby I’m so sorry. I thought you just had a fever. If I had known…I don’t know but I would’ve done something by now!”

“Matt…” Matt shut his mouth and looked back to Keith before he could start rambling. “I’m…I’m scared…” Keith pushed his lips into a tight line to muffle a whimper. He was scared of a lot of things, and admitting it was one of them.

Matt frowned and rocked gently back and forth on toes as he pressed soft kisses to Keith’s jaw. “It’s okay…I know this is a lot. But I’m gonna help you, okay?” Keith looked up at him and nodded, doing his best to smile. Matt returned it before raising an eyebrow and peeking back over his shoulder. “You have a tail now too?” Keith stiffened and blushed when he looking the mirror and saw the supposed tumor on his back had grown another inch and was swaying side to side. Fucking hell, he was wagging.

Shiro tried not to look nervous as he surveyed the cafeteria. There was still no sign of Keith but there was no sign of Matt either. “Matt said he was going to visit him. You worry too much,” Adam commented as he sat beside him.

“Still, shouldn’t one of them come in by now?” Shiro continued to stare at the door and pick at his food. “I mean, maybe Matt brought them both food but still, that means Keith still isn’t feeling good enough to get out of bed. He might end up with sores and he hasn’t even used the showers since no one has seen him out of his room. What if he doesn’t even have the strength to move-?”

“Takashi…” Adam interrupted him and drew his attention away. “Calm down, we all catch a bad cold from time to time. I’m sure Keith can handle it.” Shiro opened his mouth to protest but Adam pressed a finger to his lips. “I know you’re a bit protective of the kid, but you don’t have to act like his surrogate mother all the time. You need to think of your own health too…”

Shiro reluctantly sighed and turn to face his food again. “I was up kind of late last night…”

“It was almost 3am before you stopped checking your phone for messages and went to sleep. I don’t even know how you’re still upright,” Adam commented.

“I kinda took a cat nap on my lunch break…”

“Well get some actual sleep tonight, okay? I’ll make sure Keith is alright before lights out.”

Shiro sighed and leaned against his shoulder with a grateful hum, “Thanks Adam…”

Unfortunately, Adam’s workaholic nature got the better of him after dinner. It was nearly lights out when he finally stepped back from his work, so he resorted to texting Keith instead of checking on him in person.

_you 21:55_  
Keith, hope you’re doing better. Did Matt feed you at all? Takashi is going mad knowing you’re not feeling well. Try to make your way out of your room tomorrow, okay? I have your late assignments waiting for you.

_Keith 21:58  
_Everything’s fine Adam. Tell Shiro I’ll miss him.

Adam left it at that, assuming a typo on Keith’s part since he was a bit too tired to put in the extra effort he normally did as he sauntered to his room to sleep. As he walked in, he found Shiro already curled up and passed out in his bed. It was technically against the rules to share rooms but those were more directed at the cadets than them. He smiled softly and changed into his sleepwear, slipping in between Shiro’s large arms and falling asleep against his chest.

The next morning, Shiro was up bright an early, one of the first people in line for breakfast. It was dead silent since a majority of the cadets rushed in a few minutes late which left only the most diligent students and a large portion of the officers. He requested a second tray for Keith, the workers remarking that the boy was still sick, one of them seemed suspicious that he was faking it by this point. He asked one of the communications officers to keep an eye on his tray while he left to deliver Keith’s. The man happily obliged and Shiro rushed off towards the student dorms.

He carefully balanced the tray on one hand as he input the code to open Keith’s door, overriding a need for his ID card. He peered inside to check if Keith was sleeping, only to find he wasn’t in bed at all. “Keith?” Shiro couldn’t help the twinge of worry in his voice as he set the tray down. The room was uncomfortably quiet.

“Keith??” He looked in the bathroom, no sign of him there either. He felt his gut twist as the dark, dried stain on the floor in front of the sink. It looked unnervingly similar to blood. The more he looked around the room, the more fear began to itch in his brain. His dirty clothes and bedsheets bore the same stains. He still had stale cookies and untouched food from yesterday sitting out and…teeth…? If finally hit Shiro full force that something was horribly wrong and charged out of the room in a panic, nearly knocking over another student. He stammered a rushed apology as he ran to the medical wing. He threw the door open and approached the nurse at the front desk. “Has Keith been in this morning??” he asked, panting slightly as he caught his breath.

“Keith?” she asked as she tried to place the name. “Oh, that one kid, with the black hair. I haven’t seen him since fell off that hoverbike and fractured his wrist a few months back. Why?”

Shiro’s rapidly beating heart dropped into his gut as he turned on his heel and bolted from the room without a response. He rapidly input the code for Adam’s door, letting out a frustrated groan as his shaking finger messed up a few times before he finally got it open. “ADAM!”

Adam jumped, nearly jamming his toothbrush down his throat as Shiro ran into the bathroom. “Takashi! What-” Adam coughed harshly and spit out his toothpaste. “What’s going on?”

“Keith’s gone; he never went to the nurse! A-And there was blood- he was bleeding, Adam! He was bleeding and there was a pile of human teeth in his room!!”

Adam winced at the tight grip Shiro had on his shoulders and tried to calm him down. “Takashi, easy…you need to calm down. I texted Keith just last night, he said he was fine.” Shiro gasped for air and leaned into Adam’s touch as he cupped his cheek, tears welling in his eyes. “Come on…let’s sit down and text him. I’m sure you’re just overacting. There’s a reasonable explanation for what you saw…” Shiro held in a whimper and nodded as Adam led him to sit on the bed.

_matt 08:43  
_Are you sure you’re okay out there?

_you 08:45  
_I’m feeling a lot better. It’s just this tail thing that’s sore now…

_matt 08:45  
_And the teeth?

_you 08:48  
_Pretty much grown in. I managed to eat finally

_matt 08:50  
_That’s great, do you want me to drive out and get you more food? I have the money, it’s no problem.

_you 08:52_  
You don’t have to. Dad was a bit of a doomsday prepper. Lot of overly processed cans to eat.

_matt 08:55_  
You should have more to eat besides canned peaches and beans! I’ll get you some fresh stuff over the weekend. Don’t argue with me on this!

_you 09:00_  
Only if you stay for a movie night…

_matt: 09:01_  
Deal!

_matt 09:06  
_… I’m really gonna miss you, Keith.

Keith sighed as he sat curled up on the old dusty couch of his dad’s ranch house, phone settled in his lap at the early golden sun shined through the window. A few minutes later his phone began buzzing incessantly, text after text from Shiro. Keith could only imagine the panic racing through him right now. He bit his lip as he held his finger to the screen, feeling his heart sink as he swiped the notifications away, disregarding them without even reading what was sent. He coiled himself tighter inside the king-sized fleece blanket surrounding him and put his phone on silent.

Every cell of his skin was dyed a permanent lilac, his tail had grown to about 6 inches total and seemed to move on its own. His teeth were sharp, and his eyes were unfamiliar in the glare of the old box tv that sat across from him. He was a creature with not a place to belong and with no way to find one. He never would’ve expected growing pains to hurt this deep.


End file.
